Page 102 of The SEAL's Duchess
He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Can you walk?”
Jack winced but nodded. “I can do whatever I have to.”
He slid an arm under her shoulders, careful of her ribs, and lifted. Her weight leaned heavy against him.
“Easy, one step at a time,” he said, voice barely audible over the wind.
Matching her pace, he helped Jack toward the hatch.
He climbed down first, careful on the treacherous rungs, then reached up to support Jack down. She hissed with pain as she climbed, her breath a ragged saw.
How much longer could she hold on?
And his radio was still dead.
Don’t think. Keep moving.
He got her onto the next deck and hustled them both toward the exterior walkway. The floor angled steeply now, and every gap between the metal plates looked bottomless in the flickering red light.
The rig had sunk farther in the few minutes since he’d crossed it—the angle steeper now, pulling everything toward the water. Support cables screeched, slicing through the wind.
Fuck.
He stopped at the walkway’s edge. More strands had snapped loose, whipping sparks into the night air. The cable on one side was twisted tight as piano wire.
He tested the first panel—metal flexed under his weight, a deep, groaning protest that vibrated through his soles.
“Ryder?”
He looked back. Ivy stood behind him, pale in the storm, her eyes pure trust.
He wrenched his gaze back to the walkway. It wasn’t going to last long. But it was the only path off the Vega that didn’t end in a sixty-foot drop into black water.
“One at a time. Jack, you first.”
“No. You young things?—”
“No arguments.” He locked his arm around Jack, the pain in his shoulder just another sound to ignore. “Stay with me.”
The walkway moaned, wind shoving at his balance. He pushed on.
Thirty feet.
Twenty.
A cable snapped overhead—sharp as a gunshot.
Jack flinched. “I?—”
“Stay with me. Keep walking.”
Jack limped another step, a small animal sound breaking from her throat.
Ten feet.
Finally, solid deck under his boots.
Jack sagged against the far railing, gasping. She waved him off with a trembling hand. “Go. Get her.”
